BoxCtrl, server management programs, and a waiting list...

I was going to have to let the cat out of the bag at some point, so I figured I'd just do it now. A lot of people have asked why I am selling zensix and if I planned on sticking around after it was sold. The answer is yes, I'm sticking around, and I sold it because I did not want to do level one support for cheap shared hosting clients anymore. I wanted time to work on things I like...

One of those things will be BoxCtrl (openvz panel), which I will own the rights to once again after zensix is sold off completely. In order to fund development on it, I'll be offering server management plans for Open-VZ nodes and DirectAdmin servers (for as little as $49.95/month and it will cover five servers).

There's more information on http://zenssh.com if you hover over the top left link. This is not something that will be launching immediately, but it won't be months of waiting either. If you're interested in the server management aspect of this whole thing, see the site and add your email to the mailing list. I'll only need ten management clients to make this worth my time. Fewer than ten and I won't be able to cut back on other contract work I do. And if a ton of people want to sign up, I'll hire some help or just cap it off at the ten clients.

There was definitely not enough interest in the management side of things, meaning I'm not going to spend any of my free time working on a panel for nothing. Consider this thread dead (please don't PM me about it). Sorry.

@FRCorey said: It's called build the panel and charge, quality product will make you money.

It's called I'm not going to spend three months of my time working each day to build a panel if I'm not immediately getting some kind of income coming in. That and I don't want to be in the monthly-licensed-openvz-panel business... I want to be in the open-source-side-project business.

@Zen said: You want to work on opensource products and make money? O_O

No. I needed something to fund the amount of time it would take to build another panel. I already do server administration for other companies, so figured I'd offer a "cheap" administration plan on LET, and if enough people were interested, it would fund the time it would take me to create it.

The panel is just something a lot of people have asked me to do, so I figured I'd take on some extra work and do it. But not enough people were interested in the administration plans I offered, so I'm not going to bother with the panel. Something like that is almost a part-time job and I know from experience I would end up spending at least 20-30 hours a week on it.

I don't want the panel itself to be my job or the way I make money. End of story.

The mass of the users here do not need openVZ management. However most of them would donate. Why not just making a donate paypal button or a kickstarter project and you will see how much you would get. You might not be able to get 10 users pay 50$, however 20 paying 25$ is still the same.

Disclosure: I work for Query Foundry LLC. I own DA International Group Ltd.

@Corey said: I think the general MO of the community here is that they want everything for nothing.

Nothing against LET, but it's true for a lot of people here. Since posting this thread, I've had multiple people tell me $50/month for five servers ($10/server) was just too expensive for them. The requests I've received so far range between "if you can manage my servers for free, I'll hook you up with a free server of your own" to "I'd be interested if you could give me a 50% discount". Yeah, thanks, but no thanks.

Like I said before, I'm not turning a panel into a required job on my part. It was going to be a side-project or nothing. I'm not going to sell one directly, start a kickstarter project, or anything else like that... If any of you want to do it, go for it, but be prepared for the amount of bullshit that comes with something like that.

For the record, just to say I said it, you'd be surprised how many of us want to donate toward your project but have no need for server management. I thought it when I first saw the thread, but I figured you'd get bites on that anyway so it didn't need to be said. The crap responses you got were for server management when the reputable people here don't need it, but would do anything for a decent SolusVM alternative. At the end of the day, I can manage what I've got, but I'll be the first to tell you I can't make a control panel.

Here's the thing, when I tried the public open source panel project in the past, it became way more trouble than it was worth in less than a month. People demanded everything for nothing and expected me to care. One guy went as far as calling me at home, multiple times, demanding I walk him through a problem he was having. I ended up blocking his number, only to have him find me on Facebook and start spamming me there.

And people talk about donations, but that rarely works out for any kind of project. I could name some very large open source projects who barely break $100/month in donations.

And then there's support... create a panel, but only charge for support. It ends up becoming just like donations (unless you're Red Hat).

Anyway, I've already heard the term "SolusVM alternative" multiple times, which means that's just one more thing to add to the list. This was never meant to be a SolusVM alternative, as I've stated many times. Only an Open-VZ panel. Perhaps "OVZ Web Panel alternative" would be closer to the truth.

In the end, I just don't think there's a market for what I was going to do (speaking only of the panel). If there was, someone else would probably have started it by now.

@jarland said: I can manage what I've got, but I'll be the first to tell you I can't make a control panel.

These are my feelings to a T

I didn't realize @subigo was offering server management here, more power to him, I can see a few that could really use his help, but I can understand he doesn't want to work for free either.

I am not actively looking to replace SolusVM, but if something were to come along that can do what I need, I am more than willing to toss a couple hundred a month at it to keep it alive and developing, but if this is to remain OpenVZ only, it would not meet my needs, but hopefully one day something will.

@subigo said: One guy went as far as calling me at home, multiple times, demanding I walk him through a problem he was having. I ended up blocking his number, only to have him find me on Facebook and start spamming me there.

@subigo while we are on the subject YDGH would commit $50/mo to the cause in donations.... im sure some other providers here would commit as well..... i've been keeping quiet until I saw how this thread would go.... oh... and i'll throw in a dedi if you even needed it to test the panel and whatnot....

I have the knowledge to create a panel for openvz - but I haven't had the time so I could help as well or even fork it for my own use.

Okay then... show of hands. Who would donate and/or pay for access to a support forum/helpdesk? And if so, how much would you be willing to to donate/pay?

As I did in the past, I would base the panel on only single file php pages and bash scripts (where possible), which would make it ridiculously easy for anyone with a little php knowledge to edit and make their own. It would use sqlite instead of mysql. Lighttpd would be the server.

Again, it would be Open-VZ only and you could think of it as the PHP alternative to ovz-web-panel.

The point would be something minimalistic, easy to edit and fork, that's does the job and has no bloat.